


Let's Go To The Beach, Beach

by Ella (ellabellachicketychella)



Series: why do the stars shine so bright [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Beach Holidays, Holiday, M/M, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Pining Keith (Voltron), Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess, The Beach Episode We Were Robbed Of, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, after this chaos i put them through they need a holiday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27629317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellabellachicketychella/pseuds/Ella
Summary: Keith needed a fucking holiday. He had thought he’d dropped his best friend to his death, (best friend that he had an awful, debilitating crush on), he’d been revealed as Galra (or part Galra) to his friends, he’d gotten very close to cutting his arms open. Then said friend contacted Voltron and he was revealed to be alive, and snuggling up with a hot alien prince.He needed a holiday.Everyone else needed a holiday too.Currently, Keith was not having a holiday.That needed to change.---“You look like a raven.” Lance said.“Huh?”“Perched up here, wearing all black, being an emo,” Lance held out his hand and Keith dragged him up onto the rock. “Unlike other ravens you’re not smart.”
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: why do the stars shine so bright [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979423
Comments: 15
Kudos: 152





	Let's Go To The Beach, Beach

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a series. It can be read as a stand-alone, but for more context and a better experience I'd recommend reading the other 9 parts, they're pretty good and do you really have anything better to do?
> 
> T.W / Content Warnings: Shiro is being weird, and Keith kinda gets hit? It's not like a beating, it's a punch, but it feels kinda abusey and so it's better to mention that than not.
> 
> Also, yes, the title is inspired by Starship by Nicki Minaj. I have no shame.

Keith needed a fucking holiday. He had thought he’d dropped his best friend to his death, (best friend that he had an awful, debilitating crush on), he’d been revealed as Galra (or part Galra) to his friends, he’d gotten very close to cutting his arms open. Then said friend contacted Voltron and he was revealed to be alive, and snuggling up with a hot alien prince.

He needed a holiday.

Everyone else needed a holiday too. 

Currently, Keith was not having a holiday, he was currently beating up Lance who wasn’t a fan of being beaten up by Keith. “I died and this is how you repay me?”

“You didn’t die,” Keith responded, punching Lance square in the face and he yelped. Before glaring harshly at Keith, a glare that Keith knew very well, so didn’t react a little bit and instead kicked Lance in the side. “So I’m not repaying you for anything.”

“I almost died twice! Part of my lung was punctured.”

“Maybe then you’d stop talking,” Keith muttered, ducking one of Lance’s blows which were sloppy at best and a flail at worst. "You've gotten sloppy."

"Your face is sloppy!" Lance yelled, but backed up, his hands in the air. "I yield. Stop beating me up."

Keith shrugged, before grabbing a water pouch and sitting on the floor. Lance sitting next to him, lying down his shoulder by Keith's leg.

Cool. He was going to play this cool.

Even if he mind was screaming at him.  _ Gay. Gay. Gay. Gay. _

Normally his gay thoughts didn't catch him while training, but they'd caught him like he was a damn fish.

Keith pushed Lance away who just sighed and rolled his eyes, but didn't try and lay back next to him. Instead taking a spot a ways away.

"Keith?" Lance asked, his voice was small, small enough that it made Keith look up and at Lance.

"Yeah?" He said, his eyes resting on Lance as he pretended to not be checking him out. But he was. 

Lance took a deep breath, before turning his head so he was facing him. "Do you think I fit in here?"

When Keith stayed silent Lance took that as an invitation to keep talking.

"Like… maybe, someone else could pilot Blue…"

"Yeah," Keith said, watching Lance's face fall. "Someone else  _ could  _ pilot Blue. But Blue wants  _ you  _ piloting her. Someone else  _ could  _ pilot Red or Yellow or even Black. But they choose and even if for some idiotic reason a lion thinks you're not suitable, which is some bullshit."

Keith gave a soft smile and hoped his words wouldn't give anything away. "Even then, we'd choose you. We'd choose you every time— I'd choose you every time."

Lance just looked at him, "That was so cheesy. Going to profess your undying love?"

"No." He said flatly and Lance just grinned. "The only love I have for you is the love of teasing you."

He opened his mouth to respond but Keith held up a hand, which for some reason made Lance close his mouth.

"Seriously Lance. Blue chose you. It's because you matter and are important to the team. Hunk's the heart, Pidge is the brain, Shiro's our rationality most of the time. That makes you the soul…" that was too gay. "Dipshit." Less gay.

"Huh?" Lance said and Keith wanted to die. But he had already hit rock bottom, he might as well get a jackhammer and go to fucking town.

"Well, you kinda represent what Voltron is supposed to be…" Keith said, finding a particular interest in his boots. The lacing was interesting, even if he'd seen it a million times.

Lance was looking at him, really looking. Like Keith held all the secrets to the universe, his eyes sparkling and holding onto every word like a mantra.

_ Gay.  _ His mind whispered.  _ You big ol' homosexual. _

"Well you're smart and kind, and you're fighting for something simple. But for everything, and you're brave and somehow the right amount of serious and silly."

Lance's mouth flopped open. "Well you're fighting because it's the right thing— I'm fighting for my family. You're fighting because it's the right thing to do."

"I'm also fighting for my family," Keith said with a shrug and Lance gawked at him for a long time. "They just happen to be here with me."

"You sap!" Lance yelled, slapping Keith in the arm. "Everyone thinks you're the emo with no feelings!"

"No one thinks that?"

Lance scowled, long enough that Keith knew that he was right. "Okay, shut up. You're still a softie."

"Am not. I'm tough."

Keith scowled as Lance roared with laughter. "Sure buddy, the only tough you are is—"

"Yes?"

"Shut up." Lance returned and Keith raised an eyebrow. 

"You're doing great sweetie." Keith said in his most patronising voice possible, trying to imitate Adam's tone when he used to say that to him.

Lance looked rattled. "Sweetie?"

"Yeah? What's wrong with that?"

"It's a pet name! For people who are together and we are not together."

_ Much to my disgust.  _ Is what Keith didn't say. "Parents say it!"

"You're my parent?"

"No! Never mind. I'll stick with dipshit!" Keith threw his arms up in the air before falling backwards onto the floor. Then crossing his arms and staring up at the roof. Scowling at the roof.

A moment of silence. “So…” Lance said, “No one’s told me what I missed when I was being a badass.”

“Um, Hunk found out I was gay. Everyone minus Pidge and Shiro found out I was gay. Everyone found out I was part Galra—”

“They found out what?” Lance screeched, “They found out!”

“Yeah… a mission went really badly and they were about to chop Pidge’s head off and I…”

“Fucking lost it?” Lance supplied and Keith nodded. “Holy shit, how did that go?”

“Um… fine?” Keith said, deciding to leave out the parts about the panic attacks and him being ready to just die in space. “Not that fine,” he added when Lance looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “It was really not fine.”

“What happened?”

“I almost relapsed,” Keith said quietly, refusing to look at Lance. “And it had been so long and I thought that I was over it.”

“Are you on meds?” Lance asked and Keith nodded, “Have you been having any of the sickness? I mean, Roni was on Fluoxetine for a while and when she had crazy side effects and withdrawals if she missed any.”

Keith just smiled, he found it almost ironic that no one had asked that question yet, not even Shiro. Leave it to Lance to ask questions that actually matter. 

“Nah. For the first couple of days everything was a bit spacey and weird, but I’m good now,” he gave a small smile and Lance met that smile with one of his own, brighter though.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Lance said. “Does that mean I can make Galra jokes now?”

“Lance!”

\---

“Please Shiro,” Pidge said, stretching out the word ‘please’ impossibly long. “We need a holiday.”

Allura gave a thumbs up from over Shiro’s shoulder at her. 

The holiday thing would be happening, everyone else was on board, apart from Shiro. Hence why Pidge (who Shiro totally had a soft spot for) was currently doing her best puppy-dog eyes that not even Keith could resist. 

Shiro raised an eyebrow, scanning around. Hunk, Keith, Lance and Coran were all in front of him, nodding enthusiastically as Allura was directing behind them. But judging by the look on Shiro’s face, not even Pidge’s puppy-dog eyes were going to convince him to do this. Luckily for them, Keith knew all of Shiro’s weaknesses.

Particularly when it came to his tragic backstory. Keith could just mention not having a family and then Shiro would almost always get Keith what he wanted. Including real ice cream. Even if he started sneezing like crazy afterwards.

“We have lots to be doing,” Shiro did look amused though, and that meant Keith was going to have to guilt-trip him into another dimension. “The universe doesn’t stop needing to be saved for a couple of days.”

He glanced at Lance, who’s eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. It seemed like they were on the same wavelength. 

“But Shiro,” Lance started, “The planet Allura is looking at has beaches just like Cuba—”

“He’s been homesick lately,” Keith added flatly and Lance nodded approvingly. “Yesterday I found him looking at photos of the beach for like two hours—”

“You saw that?” Lance screeched. “Why did you stay there for two hours watching me.”

“I didn’t,” Keith shot back, “I left for training and you were still looking at beach photos when I came back,” he looked at Shiro. “This could effect the team,” he said in a very serious voice.

Shiro looked at him. “Keith, you’re trying to guilt-trip me.”

“Is it working?” Keith asked and Shiro just looked at him, his expression flat and seemingly exhausted with him. “Because the photo thing did happen, and I know Lance is also trying to let us have a break but he is homesick—”

“Am not!”

“And the beaches on the planet look kinda like the beaches in Samoa,” Hunk added.

“Have you ever been to Samoa—” Lance started and Hunk slapped a hand over his mouth looking at Shiro. Lance’s voice was muffled against Hunk’s hand but what he was trying to say wasn’t said.

Pidge smiled at Shiro, “When Matt and I were little we’d go to the beach with Mom and Dad and we’d stay there for hours, and I’d try and analyse the seaweed and Matt would throw me into the water and tell me to stop being a giant nerd.”

Lance snorted and Pidge glared at him, before Allura chimed in, making Shiro spin around. “Altea had beaches quite like the ones on Sulani, my father, mother and I used to go to them all the time and Coran and whoever he was with at the time would join us.”

“Fond memories indeed, Princess,” Coran said smiling and Shiro sighed.

Then everyone looked at Keith for a beach story, but Keith one, didn’t have any and two, needed to deliver the K.O, be the reason they were allowed to go to the beach. Keith stuffed his hands into his pockets, hopefully his limited acting skills would really do him a solid right now.

A longer moment of silence, “What?” Keith said.

“A beach story, dude,” Lance said. “Everyone else shared one.”

“I haven’t been to a beach,” Keith said flatly, before a memory popped to his head. “Oh wait, I have… with my class when I was like ten, and everyone saw the scars on my back and called me a freak and I didn’t even go in the water and a seagull ate my only food for that day.”

Everyone stayed silent and looked quite mortified. Good. Lance opened his mouth to speak before closing it, then Keith shrugged casually, looking Shiro dead in the eye. “But if you want my only beach memory to be that, that’s okay.”

Shiro sighed, very tiredly. “I know you’re all guilt-tripping me, especially you Keith, but it’s working.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, “How does this work everytime?” He muttered to himself. “You need to stop using your tragic backstory as leverage, Keith.” 

“Hey! If I have a tragic backstory I’m going to use it,” Keith defended and everyone apart from Shiro looked quite horrified. “Wait until you hear the stories about when I went to the pool, I’m still scared of water—”

“Do we want to know?” Hunk asked, “No offense, but your childhood seems like something straight out of—”

“A horror novel,” Pidge added and Hunk nodded.

“I’d like to sleep tonight,” Hunk finished and Keith shrugged. Burying his hands deeper in his pockets. “Please…”

“I agree with Hunk,” Allura said, looking quite awkward. “Your childhood does not seem to have the most… uplifting stories.”

“Now I wanna know,” Lance muttered and everyone looked at Lance. “What? It’s… intriguing?”

“His suffering is intriguing?” Shiro repeated and Pidge and Hunk facepalmed and Keith laughed. “You psychopath.”

“No, I mean… there’s a mystery now. Why is Keith afraid of the water? And we can literally find out right now— Keith why are you afraid of the water?”

Keith crossed his arms this time, glancing from Shiro back to Lance. “Y’all don’t need to know this, I’ve already guilt-tripped Shiro into letting us go. You must be at level ten friendship to unlock my fears.”

“What am I at?” Lance asked.

“Negative seven.”

“Me?” Pidge asked, sounding a bit more hopeful.

“At least three.”

“Hey!” 

“What about me?” Hunk asked, “Reminder that I did give you a milkshake despite Shiro telling me that was a terrible idea.”

“Four…” Keith said carefully and when Hunk nodded approvingly he looked at Allura, squinting a little. “Probably two and Coran can’t be counted on the same scale. He is astral planes above y’all.”

Lance pouted rolling his eyes. “I’ll remember that for when—”

“What?” Keith said.

“Shut up,” Lance returned and Hunk ‘oohed’ with the ‘roast’ making Lance scowl at Hunk and then at Keith. “I am at least a five.”

“On a scale from five to five-hundred,” Keith shot back and Lance looked so utterly offended that Keith laughed loudly. Shaking his head slightly before Lance opened his mouth, then closed it again and Keith could basically see him trying to come up with an insult. 

“At least I don’t have a mullet!”

“What’s your thing with my hair! It’s not a mullet!” Keith exclaimed, throwing his arms out either side of him, avoiding hitting Pidge just, who ducked and scurried out of the way. 

“I wanna yank it off,” Lance snapped.

“Kinky,” Pidge said and Shiro sighed. “Does that have something to do with the hickeys you totally had on Dubux?”

“I got chokeslammed!” Lance argued.

“By someone’s lips,” Pidge snorted and Allura was holding a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh. Hunk looked both horrified and amused and Lance had turned bright red and looked like he’d rather die than this cruel fate.

Keith quirked an eyebrow, “I’d like to get chokeslammed by that prince,” he said and all eyes whipped to him.

“What the fuck?” Shiro said, quite loudly too. “Keith you’re like... eleven, calm down.”

Somehow Lance had gone even redder, so Keith had completed his goal. He was the colour of an actual tomato now. Which seemed impossible, how was he that red? “Necesito a Dios. Sálvame ahora.” Lance muttered.

“So,” Keith said, looking at Shiro. “We should have a holiday and Allura already thinks we should go to Sulani and who are you to argue with a princess? You say nani unironically.”

“I’m Japanese!” Shiro said, “I’m allowed to. You’re like three percent Korean and you eat jajangmyeon like it’s your blood.”

“I’m like fifty-percent Korean!” Keith yelled, “I can eat jjajangmyeon all I want to! You eat sushi and… whatever else you eat, and I eat jajangmyeon and McDonalds.”

“Sushi is way better than jjajangmyeon!” Shiro returned, “You also love sushi you little demon! It’s like your third favourite food.”

“Jajangmyeon is like a stir-fry but better! Sushi is like a ball of seaweed and rice.”

“You love sushi, stop dissing sushi like this or I’ll disown you,” Shiro said, pointing a finger at Keith. “Then you’ll be an orphan.”

“Jokes on you, I am an orphan,” Keith shot back, “Jokes on you, so are you.”

“True,” Shiro said with a nod, and everyone else looked even more horrified. “But at least I think sushi’s better.”

“It is not!” Keith yelled. Deciding that he was going to disown himself from Takashi Shirogane if he couldn’t appreciate how good jajangmyeon was then Keith needed a new brother.

* * *

Allura was trying to get bookings on Sulani, which was apparently quite difficult even if you had saved about a quarter-ish of the known universe from Zarkon and Galra reign. So while they may have been gearing up for a holiday, they were very much not on holiday yet.

Despite this Keith had already had enough, he was sitting on the couch in the living area. His legs hooked over the back of it, his hair dangling over the edge of the couch as he read the Galra book.

“Did you know that Galra have poisonous bites,” Keith said, “If they bite with the intent to harm it’s poisonous.”

“Intent to harm?” Hunk asked, “Why else would anyone bite— oh.”

“Yeah,” Keith said, “But if it’s not with the intent to harm it apparently releases endorphins into both parties… or whatever that species equivalent of endorphins are.”

“So if you bit someone you’d both get high?” Pidge asked. “That’s cool… can I cut into your teeth to find out if that’ll happen, because you’re part-Galra.”

“No?”

“Fine,” Pidge crossed her arms. “Can I look at them?”

“No.”

“Fine.”

Keith kept reading, his hair brushing against the floor. Pidge was typing something, probably downloading more codes into the gauntlets, since that saved Lance’s life on Dubux, it seemed like a useful thing for everyone to have.

“Did you know that the same thing applied with scratching… although it says claws, and I don’t have claws,” he looked at his hands, his nails were short from biting them, even if he did have claws he kept biting them down. 

Lance walked in. “Lance can I scratch you?”

“What?”

“I need to see if we get high,” Keith said and Lance just looked at him for a long time. Before eyeing the book and something seemed to click. “Apparently scratching or biting without the intent to harm can make both people get high.”

“Go for it,” Lance held out his arm and Keith got up. “Don’t bite me.”

“I’m not going to bite you,” Keith responded. “Do you reckon you need to draw blood?” He went back over to the book, “I need to draw blood.”

Pidge snorted from her spot on the couch and Hunk did the same. Before looking at Pidge’s coding and pointing something out, Pidge sighed and there was more tapping. 

Keith grabbed Lance’s arm. There was a door opening and Allura and Shiro were standing in the doorway. “What the quiznack are you two doing?” Allura asked, and Shiro sighed.

“Trying to get high off Galraness,” Pidge answered for her. “If Galra scratch or bite without the intent of hurting then both people get high.”

Shiro looked at Keith and Lance, before sighing. “How old are you Keith?”

“Eighteen.”

“You disappoint me,” Shiro said, before looking at Lance who looked like he was about to cry. “Why?”

“Why not?” Keith defended, moving in front of Lance without even thinking about it. “We’re kids, it’s in the job description to be dumb.”

Shiro sighed. “I have one rule. Don’t get people high.”

“But—”

“Non-negotiable.” 

“Fine.” Keith crossed his arms, before grabbing his book again. Trying to find something else that would piss off Shiro. “Interesting,” Keith hummed, “Galra can handle spicy food… Hunk, how spicy can you make food?”

Hunk smiled evilly. “I can make it spicy enough that it’s banned in most countries.”

(So that happened, and Keith didn’t even break a sweat, eating the entire thing as everyone looked at him like he was insane. Eventually Lance had said, “It can’t be that spicy then!” And had some, before turning bright red and needing to actually inhale milk and then he got thrown in a pod because it was burning his esophagus on the way down and could actually burn a hole in his stomach. Keith just ate it in silence, as Pidge decided she’d need to run some tests.)

\---

“Keith…” Lance said, he was standing at his door. Looking sheepish. “Do people expect you to act a certain way because you’re Galra… like you do one thing that’s kinda Galra and then everyone’s like ‘damn, he’s Galra,’ when you’re part-Galra.”

“Um.” Keith looked up from his book. This didn’t seem like a conversation about Galra, this seemed like a conversation about something else, what that was, it seemed like Keith was going to have to figure it out. “No… because I look human and have some Galra tendencies.”

“Right,” Lance nodded to himself. “Right. But people might think you have to be one or the other, right? Like, Galra or Human, but you’re both but you can’t be both because people are going to see you one way or the other based on how you act.”

Oh. So it was about various gayness. 

“Everyone expects you to be human, because you look human. Apart from sometimes, and when you don’t look human people base their entire perception around that, and just because you have slightly pointy teeth or purple eyes, that doesn’t mean that you’re any less human. But because you do some Galra things, everyone thinks you’re Galra when you’re not!”

Okay. So it seemed that Galra=Gay, Human=Straight. But Keith needed more information to say something remotely helpful, he squinted at Lance. “Um… what?”

Lance took a deep breath. “It seems like you have to be one or the other… and you look human so everyone assumes you’re human, but you do things that aren’t very human, like eat that curry or have really sharp teeth and when people see those few not-human things they assume you’re Galra and then you’re Galra… when you’re not but you kinda have to be one or the other—”

“Lance, I’m part-Galra,” he said. “That’s a perfectly valid thing to be. I’m not Galra, but I’m not exactly human either. I think I’m more human than Galra, but that’s because I was raised that way.”

“Yeah, right, right,” he nodded to himself. “Right.”

“Lance, are we sure we’re talking about Galra-ness? Or is there something else—”

“No!” Lance squeaked. “Thanks for the chat, bye!” Then he was out of the room, and Keith was left with his book on his lap and looking at the still open door.

Keith just sighed.

\---

Keith was trying to pack, which was quite difficult considering that he didn’t know what to pack to the beach. He had all of his clothes, and a book, and his swimmers, did he need anything else?

He shoved another book in there for good measure.

“Hey,” Hunk’s voice came from behind him and Keith jumped, scrambling for his bayard before pointing it at Hunk who put his hands in the air in surrender. “Just me.”

“Yeah?” Keith asked, shoving another book into there and wondering if he could fit the paladin armour in his bag. He probably could.

“So… Lance.”

“Oh fuck,” Keith said, spinning around. “Um… yes?”

“You  _ like  _ him.” Hunk responded with a huge smile, leaning against the doorframe, having the audacity to look smug. “And he’s back.”

“And?”

“We’re going to the beach…”

“And?”

“Lance likes the beach.”

“Get to the point,” Keith said, shoving another book into his bag.

“You should tell him.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No!”

“You’re not even going to think about it?”

“Nope.”

“Not even like a tiny little bit?”

“No.”

“Keith!”

“Hunk.”

“Why are gays always this helpless?” Hunk muttered. “I have never met a gay who’s willing to be honest with their feelings. Mom and Ma didn’t say they were in love with each other until they moved in together and adopted a cat.”

“It’s the gay agenda,” Keith said flatly. Shoving yet another book into his bag. “I’m not telling him a thing and you better not either.”

“Or what?” Hunk challenged and Keith turned around slowly.

“Or, I hope you can handle the chilli you made for me when I force feed it to you, and I hope you’re not overly attached to those new kitchen knives because they’d look very good floating around in space.”

Hunk looked like Keith had just threatened to murder his entire family, but oh, boy. He had barely started. The mastery of threats came when he lived on the streets and he was a master.

“Also, it would be a real shame if someone mysteriously got a message to Shay that you are pining like a fucking pine tree and it would also be a shame if magickally the next planet we have to do a supply stop on Balmera, the one where Shay lives.”

“You monster,” Hunk whispered.

“I am not done. I also hope that you know how to cook when I fuck up the oven and I really, really, really hope that you know how to win a fight against me and I hope that you know how to fix the door on your room because otherwise you’re going to be locked out there forever—”

“What the fuck?” Lance said and Keith looked at his opened door. “Why are you threatening Hunk? Do I need to defend your honour? Square the fuck up Keith.”

Hunk was quite pale, and Keith realised why people were scared of him. “Keith is terrifying,” Hunk shuddered, “Remind me to never get on his bad side ever again.”

“Square up Keith! Scare my best friend and you get decked!” Lance got into a fighting stance, a mock one at that. Because Keith knew that standing like an action-figure was not a good way to fight anyone.

Keith raised an eyebrow. Hunk stifled a laugh and Lance was smiling too.

“Why can you threaten people so well?” Hunk asked, “That’s more concerning than the actual threats.”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to,” Keith shoved another book into his bag as Lance threw himself on the bed. Which was a bit rude, as it was his bed. But Lance apparently didn’t care that much and lounged like it was his bed.

“I want answers.” Lance said. “Is this another part of your tragic backstory?”

“I feel like only he can joke about his tragic backstory,” Hunk muttered.

Keith paused, could he actually get his armour in there? He was going to try damnit, he grabbed his armour from off his desk and started trying to push it into his bag as Lance and Hunk watched him wordlessly.

He managed to get everything in a part from his helmet. Before looking at Hunk and Lance. “How did you— what?” Lance said, “Mary Poppins?”

Who? 

Instead of responding he looked at Lance and Hunk. “Do you need to pack?”

“Oh shit!” Lance said before scurrying off, realisation dawned on Hunk’s face and he turned around and ran off too. Leaving Keith laughing to himself as everyone else scrambled to pack.

Overall he’d consider it a successful day, threatening Hunk into silence, packing for a holiday and Lance being an idiot.

* * *

When Keith was younger he went to the pool. It was with a nicer foster family too, one who actually cared for a bit, until they started really reading his record and decided that he wasn’t safe to have around. But that was a whole other issue.

He hadn’t been swimming since he was very little, since before the foster-system gave up on him. Keith had been a good swimmer when he was like… seven, so he knew how to swim, it was ingrained in him like riding a bike.

What he hadn’t counted on was one of his foster-siblings. They were all nice people. But one of his foster-siblings had said, loudly. “Why does his back look like Freddy Krueger’s face?”

Which was a child being dramatic, because his back wasn’t that torn up. Just occasional scars from people who were less than nice, and he might’ve found it funny if it hadn’t been one of the things he was still insecure about.

One of them was from the last foster-family, and it hadn’t quite healed yet, it was still pink and raw and Keith decided that this was a bad idea, so he put his shirt back on and sat at the side of the pool the entire day.

No one could persuade him to go into the water. 

Keith decided that he hated water, because nothing good ever happened around it. 

Which now that Keith looked back upon it, explained a lot about him. The general emoness, the general… being Keith. Lots about his childhood was still ingrained in him. 

The food hoarding, and how Keith wouldn’t touch his stash of food unless he was dying, and even then. It was for emergencies, not for midnight snacks.

How when someone passed Keith food or a drink, unless he was told explicitly it was for him he’d pass it to Pidge, then Lance, then Hunk. A habit from giving food to the younger kids at the various homes, you feed them first and then if you could you’d feed yourself.

Keith also would move in front of people when they were scared and someone bigger than them were talking. The scaredness and the talking didn’t have to be related, Keith moved in front of Lance all the time when he was talking to Shiro and Keith trusted Shiro with everything.

It was just a habit, moving in front of people, getting ready to take a hit for them, or getting ready to be yelled at instead of them. It wasn’t something he meant to do, it was just something he did.

He’d also move off the couch or out of his seat if there wasn’t enough room and someone else wanted to sit down. Or sometimes he’d stand up to collect the dishes when he didn’t even have to do the dishes, and even Shiro laughed when he did this, but Shiro didn’t know why he did that.

Lance would notice when Keith did it without thinking, when he’d grab the plates and get up. Lance would often also get up, because Keith couldn’t take all the plates himself and he’d go with him. Then Keith would realise and be both mortified and oddly comforted.

A habit that hadn’t left him, was how he’d pull people behind him when he felt threatened. 

Getting onto Sulani and a group of people ran at him and Lance straight away, he dragged Lance behind him. Before realising the people running at him were just fans and weren’t going to hurt them.

“Hey,” Lance said with a bright smile, people ran up. With art, and photos or just general bits and bobs. 

They weren’t new to this treatment, Keith would sign the art, take photos of cool looking ones, (which were most of them) and then Lance would do everything else, it worked pretty well. Since Lance could flirt with people and Keith could look at some cool art and stress over how beautiful it was.

“I’d like to see what you could do with that sword,” someone said and Keith looked up. Holding a piece of art, which was Voltron assembled, (which was very cool looking) and pausing with his pen, which was half-way through writing his name.

“Pardon?” Keith managed.

All the alien did was wink and all Keith did was stare deadpan back. “The only thing my sword can do is slice through your neck.” He handed the drawing back, his handwriting messily scrawled along the photo. “There you go.”

Lance stared at him, his mouth open before hitting Keith in the arm. “Dude!”

“What?” Keith took another drawing and it was of Pidge, which Keith snapped a photo of. 

“Don’t threaten to kill our fans.”

“Then they can’t flirt with me,” Keith smiled at the small alien who had drawn this. “It’s incredible,” he said to them. “I’ll show it to her.”

The small alien, who looked almost childlike nodded before running off happily. Into the arms of someone who was chattering faster than the device in his ear could translate. They essentially translated and could open comms. Which were almost like a phone.

Lance sighed dramatically, putting on a fake smile as a group of, what Keith assumed were girls walked up to him, (most aliens didn’t have the same gender binary and putting them in human boxes seemed unfair.) They were giggling and fluttering their eyelashes as they walked up.

He wasn’t even jealous because all he could think of was:  _ fuckin’ mood.  _ As he kept signing things from people who were almost as excited to show the drawings and art as Keith was to see it and sign it.

“Hey ladies,” Lance said in his fake flirting voice and they continued to giggle.

“Lance.” Keith warned flatly, before gasping. 

It was artwork of him, then suddenly he couldn’t care less if Lance was making out with someone right next to him because it was a drawing of him and it was  _ so cool!  _ It was him with his bayard in hand, and he didn’t care if the sword was drawn a bit too big. He looked particularly fierce, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His hair flying like he was in an L'Oréal ad and Keith smiled at it. Before looking at the shy looking alien who was smiling sheepishly.

“What’s your name?” Keith asked, fully prepared to profess his undying love for this small alien.

“Wri.”

“This is so cool!” Keith said, not even hearing Lance chattering. He got out his phone to take a photo of the art, and snapped it. Writing a small message which said:  _ This is so cool! Thank you Wri! - Keith. _

He handed it back and Wri made a small noise before scampering off, and Keith finally glanced at Lance who looked, flustered at best. “You right there?” Keith teased and Lance looked back at him, glaring. He laughed and Lance scowled so much that his forehead must’ve hurt.

“You are Satan reincarnated,” Lance snapped. “This is why your mom never loved you.”

“Maybe, but your dad loves me,” Keith responded with a cheeky grin. Before going back to signing things and Lance went back to chattering with the girls.

It took a while.

Before Lance turned around and slapped Keith in the arm as Keith cackled.

For a holiday, they’d gotten off to an interesting start. When Allura eventually found them and snapped at them for: “Pandering to the fans!” She’d grabbed them both by the ears and dragged them to their hotel.

It was a big fancy, industrial looking building. And if anyone had any questions about two paladins being dragged by a terrifying Altean woman with white hair they didn’t say anything about it. “We’re being kidnapped!” Lance shrieked.

“Lance, shut up!” Keith said flatly. 

He took this as a chance to look around. The beaches were beautiful, the sand was practically a bright white, almost blinding in the heat which was beating down on the back of Keith’s neck. The water was very blue, an aqua-blue with darker patches and lighter patches, framed with a border of big round black rocks that seemed to also glimmer in the sunlight.

People were walking past on what was essentially a sidewalk, people holding what seemed like buckets and something like slushies. As they held what seemed to be towels around their necks. There was general laughter, and chattering and some weird animal making some weird noise as it chased after people holding various deep fried things.

The hotel itself was a white tall building, with patterning on the edges of it which Keith couldn’t quite make out, since his head was being tilted and he was running to keep Allura from ripping his ears off.

Lance was making various noises of offence as he was being dragged and Keith couldn’t help but be incredibly tired. “Lance, she’s not letting us go.”

“You will get distracted again,” Allura hummed as Lance’s eyes stopped on what looked like a food stall and he stopped. “See.” She said pulling a bit harder and Lance yelped, while Keith didn’t make a noise.

Again. Some weird instincts, which were: If he was in pain he’d be as quiet as possible about it. Which Lance apparently hadn’t even considered, the story being told between the squealing and him trying to fight off Allura.

Keith hadn’t ever been on a holiday, so he couldn’t say if this was standard holiday behaviour or standard Voltron behaviour. It felt like a lot of both, apparently Allura didn’t know what a damn holiday was.

Lance had resorted to Spanish now, saying things that the translator didn’t pick up. “¡Suéltame mujer demonio! Déjame vivir mi vida libre de que me arranquen las orejas!” He all but yelled, “Por eso no tenemos cosas bonitas mujer. Suelta mis oídos, ¡ya han sido abusados y atacados bastante!

Whatever Lance was saying did nothing. And Allura continued to drag them silently before stopping in front of the hotel doors, which were more archways then doors. Crossing her arms and looking at the two of them, slightly tired, slightly disappointed, and slightly murderous.

That was Allura for ya.

“We thought you had been captured,” Allura said before whacking Keith who only flinched a little bit. “Do not scare us like that again. I do not have the energy to be scared on our holidays.”

“Yes ma’am,” Keith muttered, again, a reflex and Allura looked a bit sad for a moment and Lance also looked more surprised than sad. “Sorry, for scaring you.” He said, again, it was reflex and Allura smiled sadly.

“It’s alright Keith, we were worried. That was all,” Allura ruffled Keith’s hair and Keith tried, and failed, to bat her away. “I am glad you are alright and just being a bunch of… what would Pidge say?”   
  


“Nerds?” Lance supplied and Allura nodded enthusiastically. 

Pidge and Hunk ran out. Wearing new clothes. Pidge was wearing a green tank-top and grey shorts. While Hunk was (still) wearing his headband, a yellow shirt and brown shorts, he’d taken off his gloves though. So small victories.

Shiro and Coran trailed off behind them. Shiro was wearing a t-shirt (weirder things had happened) but was still wearing his long pants and looked like he was sweating slightly. 

Coran was… being Coran? Wearing a blue singlet, and the shortest shorts out of anyone. They weren’t really that short, but they were still the shortest and Keith stared for a bit, wondering what bet he’d lost. Apparently he hadn’t lost any bets.

Allura was still in her normal dress, and she looked warm to say the least. “Are you going to change Princess?” Coran asked and Allura nodded, wiping her brow. 

“Yes, Coran. I didn’t expect it to be so warm.”

Keith was fine. Even in his jacket, he was more than fine. Maybe that was a desert side-effect, Lance also looked fine. In more ways than one. But he didn’t look like he was sweating bucket loads unlike the others.

Cuba was warm right? How was he supposed to know, he’d missed a year worth of geography when he was living on the streets. Cuba sounded like it would be warm, like how Australia just sounded like a warm place.

Sure. That worked.

Eventually Pidge held out two cards, Keith stared at them before Pidge rolled her eyes. Pressing a red one into Keith’s hand and a blue one into Lance’s. “Your room keys, dunderheads. You two get rooms in the same halls, like on The Castle.”   
  


“Oh.” Keith said, very intelligently. “Thanks, Pidge.”

“No worries,” Pidge said, “Hunk and I are gonna check out the beach.”

“I’ll come with you,” Lance said, “Give me five minutes.”

He ran off and Pidge and Hunk sighed, but they didn’t move from their spots. Shiro stood there, his arms behind his back for some reason. Why? Keith stood there for a moment before pointing up to the building.

“I’m just gonna—” and Keith walked off. Looking at his card. Room 3AC.

The lobby was beautiful, a rainbow chandelier hung in the middle, reflecting off of the ponds and fountains that they appeared to have here, running water everywhere. The walls and floors were white, almost as reflective as the water, so they shone with rainbow lights.

A few hallways spiraled off from the lobby, and what appeared to be an elevator was shoved in a corner but still managed to reflect everything. Keith looked around. Seeing three dashes and deciding that was his hallway.

He was rewarded by the right hallway. Before seeing the numbers, A-C on a door. Which had a note stuck to it in a language that Keith couldn’t read. So he brought up his phone-thing to translate it.

_ Welcome, Red Paladin. - The Staff _

Keith laughed, before swiping his card over the door, tearing off the note as the door slid open.

His first revelation was that everything his bag was already in here. Resting on his bed, the bed that was giant. Keith looked around first. 

The room had white walls and floors, with a black carpet in the middle which looked incredibly soft. The bed has a red pillow, but the actual blankets were white, and Keith smiled at the effort of the red pillow. Something that didn’t matter at all, but they still did.

There was a door, which Keith pried open into a bathroom which looked like the ones on the castle. One he knew how to use, great. He admired the black tiles for a moment longer than necessarily needed before closing the door.

The only other things in the room was a bar for hanging clothes and a single armchair which Keith threw his jacket into, before deciding that he needed his hair out of his face and some shorts on.

So he opened his bag, things springing out everywhere and his helmet (which he’d managed to squeeze in there) hit him in the face. He sighed. Before looking around for a surface to put his armour on and found it within a small table he hadn’t noticed when he came in. Putting the undersuit and armour on that before looking around.

Shorts. His hair out of his face.

Then he’d… realistically sit up here with the air-con on until someone dragged him out of here. So that’s what Keith did.

He was on his bed, reading his books. Completely and utterly absorbed by the love story between… whatever their names were, which Keith couldn’t pronounce. There was some serious symbolism between colours, war and gentleness.

He completely lost track of time, only noticing when the light faded and his door opened with a slam. Keith threw the book and watched as it hit Lance in the head, a cut erupting across his forehead as he rubbed it.

His hair was damp, and… he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Okay. Cool. This was fine. If the gay thoughts didn’t catch him he’d be alright.

“What have you been doing?” Lance asked, sweeping some damp hair out of his eyes. “We go on holiday and you read?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever been on a holiday?”   
  


Keith hummed, trying to think. There was one time when he went to Adam’s parents house, but he’d been trying to make them like him and hadn’t done any relaxing. It did snow though, and they all played about in the snow for a while.

Instead Keith shrugged.

“You do things you wouldn’t normally do, you have fun.”

“I am having fun.”

“But you could be having  _ more  _ fun,” Lance said. “Whatever, you have to come to the beach tomorrow.”

“No.” Keith said flatly. “I don’t do water, I don’t swim and I do not go to the beach.”

“You don’t have to swim,” Lance argued. Leaning against his door frame, his muscles moving underneath his skin in a way that was making him very—

Gay thoughts. Not today.

“Just spend some time with the team in the sand. We have a private beach too, Allura managed to wrangle that by promising Coran’s firstborn.” Keith snorted and Lance’s eyes lit up at that. “At least come to the beach,” he said, “You don’t have to swim, and if you really hate it we can come back here.”

“We?”

“Me and you,” Lance said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Oh.” Keith hid looked out the window in order to try and hide his face which felt like it was getting hotter and hotter with every passing millisecond. “But you love the beach.”

“I love pestering you more,” Lance replied with a smile. “Anyway, order room service. Everything’s free. Hunk, Pidge and I shared the doughnut things, and they were so good.” He turned around, before pausing.

Before spinning back around. “G’night Keith.”

“Night Lance.”

* * *

Keith woke up not remembering his dream, but he remembered that he needed to run. So he peeled himself out of bed. Zipping up his jacket and struggling to pull on his boots, he scurried out of the darkness of his room, and into the pale light of the hallway.

Where was he even going? He didn’t care.

He just needed to go, he’d return. He’d return every time, but he needed to… not be here. Pulling his jacket around himself he stepped out into the lobby, it was slightly chilly and completely deserted.

Apart from a figure that he knew in the dark everywhere. Shiro. Sitting by one of the fountains, it looked like his flesh hand was skimming the top of the water, looking blankly ahead. 

Like he was asleep with his eyes open. Keith approached, until he was close and waved a hand in Shiro’s face who didn’t even react. This was weirder than usual, Shiro had been acting kinda weird lately. Between yelling at people and shoving people, it had all been weird.

Shiro wasn’t exactly known for yelling, or shoving, or generally being a removed jackass. But it kinda seemed like he was drifting further and further away and Keith was scared for him, scared because he wasn’t talking, and scared because the burden of the leader would weigh down in his shoulders all the damn time.

There wasn’t a time where Keith couldn’t see the tiredness, couldn’t see that Shiro was still only twenty-five and he didn’t know what he was doing much more than anyone else here. Everyone else was younger, but Shiro was also young.

Keith snapped his fingers, and Shiro didn’t move and inch. It was like he wasn’t even here, Keith or Shiro, or maybe both. Then Keith clapped in front of his face and Shiro still stared ahead, unblinkingly and unseeing.

What was happening?

The only thing that showed he wasn’t dead was the slight rise and fall of his chest. Shiro wasn’t dead… he was just being weird and Keith didn’t know what to do about it. If Shiro was having a flashback or something…

_ This isn’t a flashback.  _ His mind told him, quietly.  _ You know what flashbacks are like… this isn’t it. _

So Keith put his hand on Shiro’s shoulder.

The reaction was immediate because Keith was on the floor and his cheek was throbbing. Shiro was sitting up straight.

It wasn’t the hitting him that struck something, Keith knew what it was like to hit as an instinct, he did it sometimes too. But it wasn’t being hit after being startled. 

It was how Shiro’s eyes were blank.

Like they hadn’t even seen him do that. Like Shiro was just looking at… a blank piece of paper rather than his little brother. It was how that Shiro was looking at him like he was a stranger.

Keith held a hand to his cheek and looked at Shiro. Who was looking straight through him and Keith slowly stood up, before turning back around and going to his room. It was too early for a fight.

* * *

Eventually when Keith woke up, and managed to pull on some clothes, and do his hair up in a low ponytail he looked in the bathroom mirror. Seeing a light bruise on his cheek, he poked it, before hissing. 

Pidge and Shiro were already in the lobby, Shiro’s eyes darted up first and knitted in concern. “What happened?” Shiro asked and Keith’s mind shut down.

What. The. Fuck.

_ You happened!  _ He wanted to scream, but instead he just put his hand up to his cheek, like he himself hadn’t known it was there. “Dunno,” he shrugged. “I think I got elbowed by a fan?” Pidge and Shiro nodded in sync, before Pidge started going into depth about one time when the family dog ran straight through the drywall.

Keith didn’t listen. All he could hear was the thump of his heart in his ribcage, as his eyes would dart to Shiro and then away. Allura, Coran and Hunk came in that order, standing around and listening to Pidge.

Lance was last, rubbing his cheek absentmindedly before he stopped in his tracks before looking at Keith. “What happened to you?”

“Dunno, maybe I got elbowed,” Keith replied, it sounded fake even to him. Lance raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something, before Shiro stood up and Pidge followed after him.

Hunk followed after her. Then Coran and Allura. Keith stayed where he was standing, staring after Shiro and Lance was standing next to him. Slightly curious, and concern drawn all across his face.

Neither of them said anything until everyone else had left. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” Keith muttered, “Just— everything’s weird.”

“Like anti-depressants weird or just weird.”

“Just weird…” Keith said, “Is it just me or has Shiro been acting weird?”

Lance looked at him, his eyebrows furrowed. “I mean kinda.”

“Like he’s a resigned jerk one second and then he’s Shiro the next. Like two different people are taking control of his body—”

“PTSD is messy,” Lance said, “People cope differently.”

“I know!” Keith brushed the stray hairs out of his face, and they stuck slightly from sweat. “I know that it’s just… he’s acting wrong, and that sounds like a terrible thing to say but Shiro isn’t like this.”

Lance was listening, he wasn’t looking straight through him. He was actually listening and that was all Keith needed. 

“I did some fucked up things as a kid. I tried to get him and Adam broken up, I tried to get him fired like twice… and he never yelled, and now he’s yelling more than ever and— I dunno what’s happening, he’s not talking to me or anyone and I don’t know what to do, I think I’m going crazy—”

He was cut off by a hand around his wrist. Pushing down his arm as it started going higher and higher as he was ranting. “You’re not crazy. I promise. We’ll figure this out.”

“We?”

“You and I, dipshit,” Lance gave a crooked smile. “I know it’s hard, but just forget… have a holiday. I’ll snoop around for a bit, you enjoy your day.”

“But—”

“Nope. I’ll also be having fun Keith.” Lance started walking, before looking over his shoulder. “C’mon.”

And Keith was a weak man, because if Lance told him to follow him into a burning building, he wouldn’t even think about hesitating.

Outside was hot, and Pidge, Hunk and Shiro were already playing around in the surf, kicking water up at each other and laughing. Keith watched Shiro, waiting for something weird to happen, but nothing weird did happen.

Lance walked up to them, no falter or hesitation in his step. “Can you believe my man Keith likes sushi more than jajangmyeon,” he said, absolutely nailing the pronunciation and Keith fell a bit more in love. “It’s a disgrace.”

“Yeah,” Shiro said, “Jajangmyeon is a blessing on humanity.”

Pidge and Hunk looked confused, but that was forgotten when Lance kicked water at them.

Keith was frozen. 

Shiro didn’t like jajangmyeon and he loved sushi.

He’d once tried to inject sushi into his veins, (Adam stopped him).

Unless one of the key aspects of Shiro’s taste buds had changed overnight, something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong and no one could see it and he didn’t know what to do about it.

Lance sauntered up right in the middle of Keith’s panic. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out.”

“He hates jajangmyeon. It was like… part of his personality.”

“Relax,” Lance said softly. “It’s okay, we’re on holiday right? You can’t spend your holiday stressing out about… whatever. Shiro’s fine, he’s acting weird, but he’s okay.”

Keith nodded. 

“Now go enjoy your holiday,” he pulled Keith forward and then pushed him towards the group. 

All of them smiling a different brand of evil as he staggered forward, catching himself, one of Shiro’s arms reached out and helped him, and as soon as Keith knew what was happening he stood back up and jerked his arm out of Shiro’s grip.

“C’mon Keith,” Hunk said, “You need to make a sandcastle at least once.”

So Keith got cartered around by everyone. Doing what they deemed was a “real beach experience”. Hunk and him made a sandcastle which was messy and a little bit ugly and was probably just a mountain of sand, but it was theirs. When Lance threw seaweed at them Hunk squealed like a child and Keith laughed so hard that he cried.

Then Pidge stomped on the castle so that ruined that real quick and she grabbed Keith. Claiming that they had to turn someone into a sand mermaid, Keith didn’t know what any of those words actually meant but she seemed excited about it, jumping around and pushing Lance to the ground with the words, “It’s mermaid time!” And Lance didn’t fight back, whether that was because Keith had him in a headlock or because he didn’t really care was an unknown variable. So they turned Lance into a mermaid, and he looked like a complete dork, but Pidge was laughing hard and so was Lance. So it seemed worth it.

Allura just flung seaweed, or something of the sort at Keith and Keith flung it back at her, causing the two of them to start a war more deadly and dangerous than the one they were fighting in. By the end Keith had several red marks on his legs from Allura using seaweed like a whip and Allura had just as many bright red marks and seaweed tangled in her hair as Pidge and her tried to get it out. As Lance tried to get sand and seaweed out of Keith’s hair.

That had been fun. Attacking his sorta-leader with seaweed.

Coran had made him walk with him while he was trying to find buried treasure or something, chattering about animals that Keith didn’t know and things that he didn’t understand. He wasn’t as close with Coran as Lance, so he didn’t know how to make conversation without making it feel awkward. So instead he listened to Coran, adding a few comments now and again making Coran laugh as he dug up golden things and as Coran dubbed:

“Things!” And Keith laughed and nodded at Coran’s pile of… stuff which varied completely as Keith stared at it as it grew bigger and bigger and Allura also stared at it, everything thrown everywhere. 

“We need an intervention,” Pidge whispered. So while Hunk, Allura and Pidge figured that out and started reasoning with Coran, Keith perched on a rock, watching Shiro.

He wasn’t being that weird, Lance was talking to him happily. Before looking at Keith perched on the rock and laughing, at least it looked like laughing from this distance. Lance started across the sand, walking across the sand like it was natural.

Unlike Keith who had more sand in his shorts than existed in the entire world, he eventually stopped in front of the rock. Looking up at Keith and squinting slightly into the sun. “You look like a raven.”

“Huh?”

“Perched up here, wearing all black, being an emo,” Lance held out his hand and Keith dragged him up onto the rock. “Unlike other ravens you’re not smart.” 

Keith rolled his eyes before draping over the rock, bending a bit weirdly but it was nice to be in the sun. Lance sitting next to him, quietly, probably also enjoying the sun. He squinted before Lance put his hand in a way that the shadow would shield his eyes and Keith relaxed a little bit more.

“How’s your day been?”

“Good,” Keith hummed, his eyes feeling a bit tired and his eyelids heavy. “You?”

“Considering I watched you spear-tackle Pidge for destroying a sand castle, I had a fantastic day.” Lance said with a laugh and Keith groaned, before turning on his side so he was facing Lance and could hopefully justify himself. He opened his mouth, before rolling back onto his back and instead looking up at the sky.

They didn’t say anything and Keith wondered when they’d gotten this casual with each other, when the silences weren’t awkward or filled with fake arguments. When Keith would relax the most around Lance than anyone else, or when Keith felt the least judged when he was with Lance. 

Lance’s eyes were on Keith, and he met his eyes lazily. Before closing one eye in an effort to sort of hide his eyes from the sun, but he still wanted to be looking at Lance. “Mmm?” He hummed and Lance shook his head, like a dog, sending water everywhere and Keith barely reacted. Just with an over dramatic sigh.

Still, he was totally going to use this time to check out Lance. Because he was so close, and his shirt was wet and clinging to him in all the right ways, his eyelashes were impossibly long, framing his beautiful blue eyes which Keith wasn’t going to look at too long out of fear of being drowned in them. 

The gay thoughts had caught him and he wasn’t even mad about it.

Because Lance was just, truly and utterly beautiful. There was no other word for it, stunning, amazing, like someone reached into Keith’s heart and got his deepest wants and made them into Lance.

Whether Lance was beautiful because of the soul inside the body, or the body. Keith didn’t know, he guessed that it was the soul and… Lance that made Lance so beautiful, not his face or his height or anything else apart from Lance, but Lance.

It didn’t make much sense, but Keith was never good with metaphors.

Lance hummed and Keith glanced at him. Something stirred in his stomach, at how domestic this felt. It felt like they weren’t fighting in an intergalactic war and it felt like they were just on the beach, just chilling.

Maybe one day they could just be on a beach. Not necessarily  _ Lance and Keith,  _ but the team, forgetting the war and just living in the surf.

Keith never wanted a complex life, all he really wanted was to be happy. He didn’t ask for the space-wars and space-lions. It was pretty easy to make him happy, or at least content, give him a place to call his own and a couple of plants and he was happy to live there forever.

Currently he didn’t have any plants or any place to call his own. “I want a plant.” Keith said, “Like a cool plant.”

“Good adjective use,” Lance was looking at him, his eyes soft and almost fond and Keith was going to pretend that didn’t make him forget that he did know English, “I’m sure we can find a cool plant.”

“Nice.”

“Nice.”

“Great!”

“Fantastic.”

They looked at each other, in complete silence before bursting out laughing, shaking their heads as they did so. Slightly tired with each other, from the heat, but still loud. Keith stopped laughing first, and just stared at Lance as he laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he threw his head back cackling.

How someone could be beautiful, hot, cute, kind, mean, and every opposite adjective in the world was beyond Keith, and he was mad about it. 

“You’re an idiot,” Keith said, instead of something as corny as ‘I love you,’ or ‘please date me’ and Keith noticed how easily he almost said it, like he’d say his name or be mad at people. 

Apparently loving Lance was easy.

And saying that was easier.

So Keith resolved, everytime a normal person would say, ‘I love you’ or ‘please date me’ or ‘I really, really, really, like you in a gay way’ he’d just call him an idiot. 

They meant the same thing now.

“Puh-lease,” Lance responded, with a wide smile. “I am amazing, you’re just mad.”

Keith rolled his eyes instead of saying something else. Crossing his arms and scoffing. Nailed it! Emoness activated!

“Hey!” Pidge yelled and Keith didn’t look up, knowing that Lance was looking was good enough, Keith was going to die on this rock and he’d be perfectly content with that. “Wanna play volleyball?”

Lance poked him in the side. “Wanna play volleyball?”

Keith just hummed lazily, rolling onto his side to protect his face from becoming a lobster colour tomorrow. Lance just laughed. “Our resident cat here does not want to.”

“You playing?” Pidge asked.

“Um…” Keith didn’t know what Lance was looking at, “Nah. The teams will be uneven.”

It went quiet after that, and the general yelling got moved down a bit further so that Keith actually had to actively listen to hear what they were saying. And he wasn’t actively listening, so it was quiet.

Until Lance said, “Come into the water.”

And that had Keith sitting up so fast he almost fell off the rock, and probably would’ve if Lance hadn’t reached out to catch him by his t-shirt. He got dragged back onto the rock, and if Keith looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack, Lance looked like the polar opposite.

“You don’t have to,” Lance reaffirmed. “That’s cool. I don’t mind, but we’re at the beach and you haven’t been into the surf once. Just like, dip your toes in maybe?”

“I don’t swim.”

“It’s not swimming. The surf isn’t gonna take you out, I won’t let it.”

“You think you can compete against water?”

“Watch me,” Lance’s eyes were alight and Keith would’ve founded it endearing if Lance wasn’t such an idiot. “I’ll get my gun and be like  _ pew, pew,  _ and then the water will be like ‘oh sorry man, we’ll give your idiot samurai back.’”

“Your?” Keith repeated.

“Uh— yeah, like our, the team. Not  _ my  _ samurai because you’re not mine, you’re not anyone’s but you’re our samurai.”

“Smooth.”

“As a porcupine.”

Keith hummed, looking at Lance before glancing out onto the shiny, shimmering water, his eyes watching it move back and forth, deciding if it was dangerous. Then looking at Lance, who’s eyes were hopeful, but not pushing and since when were people’s emotions and expressions that easy to read?

If Keith could trust Lance to catch him mid-air, to keep his Galra-ness a secret, to have his back in a fierce battle, with his goddamn heart. He could trust him in the shallows of the water, he sighed.

Lance gasped and fell off the rock onto the sand and popped up less than a second later, “If you moved that fast in training,” Keith deadpanned. “Maybe you’d win.”

“Beach, beach, beach!” Lance chanted instead of coming up with a witty reply, he was dancing and shimmying on his heels.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Beach time, baby!” He yelled to the sky and Keith facepalmed.

“You’re the biggest idiot ever,” Keith crossed his arms again and Lance was still dancing, his hips were… moving. In a way that was going to cause some problems if Keith didn’t look away soon.

Before Keith just stared, not in a sexual way, in a how-are-you-doing-that-you-freak-of-nature way. “What the fuck?” Keith whispered, “How are your hips not dislocated?”

“Wait until there’s Shakira,” Lance said, “Then you’ll actually think I was genetically modified at birth.”

A beat.

“Were you?”

“No!”

“Kidding!” Keith lied, as he hopped off of the rock. “I’m kidding, if you were genetically modified you’d be one of the defects.”

“Keith!”

Keith ran off instead of answering like a normal person, splashing in the waves, surprisingly not feeling the panic rising up inside of him, instead, just laughter he laughed as Lance tackled him.

Dragging the both of them under the water into the icy relief from the hot sun. Keith stumbled to his feet, running deeper as Lance ran after him. Both of them were laughing now, as Keith took off his shirt which was clinging to him like a second skin.

The water was up to his chest now and Lance was still coming at him, laughing as Keith splashed at him. And in return got a mouthful of water as he spluttered, before grabbing his soaking t-shirt and waving it like a bad sword.

“Oh no.” He deadpanned, “Whatever shall I do?”

Then he took off his own t-shirt, and Lance started swinging that around. Before it hit Keith with a loud thump. 

They both stared for a long moment.

“You bitch!” Keith yelled before launching himself at Lance and knocking the pair of them underneath the water as Keith just flailed. 

Lance apparently knew how to fight people and things underwater, or just had a better sense of direction than him, because he was dragged up and kicked in the shin at the same time as Lance laughed loudly.

Keith would’ve been looking if his eyes weren’t burning and they were tightly closed. “Where are our shirts?” Keith asked, rubbing at his eyes. “Can you grab ‘em?”

Water moved around him and Lance hummed. Before there was a hand on his back and Keith jerked around, his eyes opened. “What the fuck?”

“Accident!” Lance squeaked, holding out a drenched black t-shirt. “It was an accident, I swear.”

Neither of them said anything, Keith knew Lance saw the scars. Lance knew that Keith knew that. Keith knew that Lance knew that he knew. And Lance knew that he — you get the idea. 

The only noises were the water around them, and Pidge screaming something about the entire game being a “fucking scam!” As the pair of them just looked at the other.

“Yeah?” Keith crossed his arms.

“Just— y’know.”

“I do.”

“It’s not bad or anything…”

“There’s just a lot,” Keith finished for him.

“There are so many,” Lance whispered. “And pods don’t leave scar tissue unless it’s bad.”

“Yup.” He said tonelessly. “And they’re ugly—”

“What?” Lance said, looking like someone had slapped him. “Your scars aren’t ugly, everyone has scars.”

“Not everyone looks like someone took a cheese grater to their back,” he returned.

Lance tilted his head, shaking his head, before almost smiling. “They’re human, they show that you bleed and they show that you’re alive, and that’s beautiful. Humanity is beautiful.”

“I’m not really that human—”

“Shut up, mullet.” Lance said, and he said it in the kindest voice possible.

“You’re an idiot.”

* * *

They did end up playing volleyball, just before they were supposed to be leaving. All of them clutched onto the last remaining chance of a holiday and to be without needing to be anyone.

Pidge, Allura, Lance v.s Shiro, Hunk and Keith. It seemed cruel to put Keith and Lance against each other, because it quickly became a game between them. Which was shown when Shiro was shoved out of the way for Keith to hit it.

Keith was running, sprinting, his lungs wishing for death. Before eventually, finally, he’d have to thank the lords themselves for that, the ball touched the ground on Lance’s side. Who was bright red and flopped onto the sand.

He also fell over, feeling the sand moved around him and couldn’t even complain that it hurt because his lungs just weren’t working. Hunk poked him in the side with his foot, a few times, before Keith groaned and swatted at him.

“He’s alive!” Hunk yelled.

“No word on Lance,” Pidge said, “Starting compressions!”

Hunk started singing ‘Stayin’ Alive’ as Lance was yelling breathlessly to get Pidge and Allura, apparently Allura had him pinned as Pidge did fake chest compressions. 

Shiro stood by the group of bags, just laughing.

Eventually they both managed to pry themselves from the ground, still breathing heavily and bright red, and not even just from the sunburn, from the fact that Keith’s legs were shaking. If Lance and him moved as much as they did then when they fought the Galra, they didn’t stand a chance.

“He has stamina,” Pidge teased, nudging Lance who was still struggling to breathe. “Remember that Lancey.”

“Fuck off, Pidge,” Keith said between pants, “Your dad knows all about my stamina.”

“First of all,” Pidge took a deep breath. “What the everloving-fuckery Keith Kogane! I expect this behaviour from Lance, maybe even Shiro if he’s exhausted, but you, I expect better from you. Second of all, you’re like my brother, that’s like super incest.”

Pidge kept ranting as they stumbled to their lions. Before Keith flopped over his suitcase and Lance laid on his back. Muttering to the roof that this entire situation was awful, then flipping off Keith who flipped him off in return.

“I hate you,” Keith said between breaths. “You’re what gets me killed.”

“You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to this universe.”

“I’m leaving,” Pidge said.

“Not going to be here for this,” Hunk added, and Allura and Coran nodded enthusiastically before approaching Green and Yellow.

Shiro didn’t move for a moment, and instead stared at Black for a long moment. Before glancing at the boys flopped over their suitcases and lying on his back, and walking forwards. A falter in his step that Keith knew how to recognise after years of having been around Shiro and seeing his mannerisms.

He was nervous.

And Keith didn’t know why.

He sat up quickly, suddenly not caring about how much he was dying due to the fact that he couldn’t breathe and looked at Shiro, who faltered even longer this time and Lance had sat up, also looking curious.

Black opened her jaw for Shiro and Shiro walked right in.

Keith relaxed back over his suitcase before glancing at Lance lazily, between still laboured breaths. “We should probably get back to our lions.”

“Yeah,” Lance sighed, “I hate you.”

“Hate you too.”

“I’m not going to be able to move tomorrow. You need to carry me around everywhere.”

“No,” Keith laughed, “You started it, you carry me.”

“Ew, no way on Earth—”

Then Shiro was on the ground, and there was a shield up around Black. Her eyes duller than Keith had ever seen them, even when she was resting, they still had a tint of yellow in them, not much, but still some.

Now there was no light in Black’s eyes.

Shiro stared up at his lion, his eyes sad, but almost understanding. Before he slowly stood up off the ground, looking at the two boys who had been lounging a few seconds ago and were now sitting up straight.

Before reaching up to the comm that Pidge had given them all that time ago, tapping his ear. Taking a deep breath, and Keith could see that he was actively trying to ignore him and Lance, as he turned his back to them.

Lance and Keith glanced at each other.

“What the fuck?” Lance whispered.

“I have no fucking clue.” Keith whispered back.

“Guys,” Shiro said, “Black’s kicked me out—”

There was chaos in Keith’s own comm and Lance winced slightly as Allura, Pidge, Coran and Hunk all yelled something different.

“I don’t think I’m the leader anymore,” Shiro said.

It went silent after that.

Shiro was the leader, it was just… who he was. Pidge was the sarcastic computer person, Hunk was their local kind-hearted chef, Coran was the eccentric space uncle, Allura was the badass-princess, Keith was the hothead and Lance was the only sense of reason sometimes.

It was as simple as that. Shiro was the leader.

If he wasn’t anymore— something was wrong, something was seriously wrong with Shiro.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Me: Let's write a fluffy short piece, y'know 5000-8000 words would be great. Just to show a break and
> 
> Me 12019 words later: Cool, cool, cool.
> 
> Feel free to yell at me in the comments, mainly wtf is on with Shiro. You may wanna do some re-reading to try and guess, because it's been a while since I've published anything, because I was kinda working on some art. It isn't great but it's my first digital art in y e a r s
> 
> Thanks for reading! I love hearing from y'all, so don't be scared to comment something!!! I love every comment, the ones about Lulio were hilarious!


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